Guantánamo Britons may stand in election

For most of the last three years, four Britons have been trying to get out of the Guantánamo Bay prison where they were held by the United States as suspected terrorists.

After their return to Britain, expected to be next Tuesday, two of the men will decide whether they will try to get into parliament.

Supporters who have been fighting to secure the men's release say that Moazzam Begg and Richard Belmar will consider standing at the general election, expected to be in May.

They would be candidates for the Peace and Progress party, launched last year by the actors Vanessa and Corin Redgrave, which accuses the Blair government of trampling on human rights.

Mr Begg, who says he has been tortured by the US while in captivity, is reported to have confessed to a plot to bomb the Houses of Parliament with remote controlled planes full of anthrax. His supporters say that such a plan is technically impossible and that he confessed to try to stop the ill treatment he was suffering.

Mr Redgrave said Mr Begg and Mr Belmar have already been sounded out about standing by a lawyer who visited them last year. It was thought then that they would be absentee candidates. They agreed.

Mr Redgrave said the men's candidacy would highlight their ill-treatment, the denial of basic legal rights by the US, and the alleged torture the Britons suffered.

"Their standing, if they were to stand, it would have a great resonance as regards the question of the government pledging to give everyone a fair trial and prohibit the use of torture," he said, but added that the men might not want the additional stress of candidacy on their return.

Mr Begg, who is from Birmingham, could stand in the Hodge Hill constituency in the city, which Labour held in a byelection last year with a majority of just 460. Mr Belmar could stand in a London seat.

Mr Begg's father, Azmat Begg, said if his son did not stand as an MP, then he would: "He has the right to stand for parliament. We will have to see what the mental effect has been on him of his detention.

"If he does not stand, I will. It was very bad what was done to him, and the government did not do enough to help him."

A spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission, which supervises voting, said there would be no bar to the men standing, even if they are charged by UK police on their return to Britain. The US has never charged or tried them.

The other two Britons expected to return next week are Martin Mubanga and Feroz Abbasi.